Aussies Evacuated From China To Be Quarantined In Former Mining Camp

More Australians from the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan in China are primed to enter quarantine at an old mining camp north of Darwin.

A flight aimed at evacuating the Australian citizens and permanent residents from Wuhan departed China overnight, after being delayed.

The Qantas plane was originally scheduled to leave Wuhan on Friday night but did not get clearance to land from China and spent Saturday in Hong Kong.

"We continue to work constructively with Chinese authorities, and everything is on track for the flight later tonight," Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Saturday night.

She later tweeted on Sunday morning that the plane had taken off.

When the Australians are extracted they will be sent to the Manigurr-ma Village at Howard Springs, an old mining camp about 30km from Darwin.

Christmas Island was unable to house another couple of hundred evacuees.

So far two groups of Australian citizens or permanent residents have been evacuated to Christmas Island, with 241 leaving on a Qantas flight and 35 departing on a later Air New Zealand flight.

They all face a two-week quarantine process.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly revealed on Saturday that one of the evacuees -- a young Australian girl -- had been tested for the virus after developing an illness.

But her sickness isn't serious and could be "all sorts of things", he said.

"That person is well, it is certainly not a serious illness at this stage," he told reporters.

Authorities have also just become aware of a third cruise ship, located somewhere between Japan and Guam, affected by coronavirus.

Professor Kelly said it wasn't known yet whether there are any Australians on board.

Another ship at Yokohama in Japan with 3700 people on board has 219 Australians who are well and another seven who are among 64 passengers to have tested positive.

Another cruise ship at Hong Kong with coronavirus on board has 16 Australians, none of whom are ill.

Australia has so far had 15 confirmed coronavirus cases: five in Queensland, four each in NSW and Victoria and two in South Australia.